fix(errors): prevent billing false positive in sanitizeUserFacingText by lailoo · Pull Request #13467 · openclaw/openclaw

lailoo · 2026-02-10T15:12:23Z

Summary

Problem

sanitizeUserFacingText() unconditionally applies isBillingErrorMessage() to all user-facing text. The isBillingErrorMessage function uses a broad heuristic that matches any text containing both "billing" and one of "payment", "upgrade", "credits", or "plan". This causes assistant-generated content discussing billing/payment topics (e.g., gym membership billing details) to be replaced with the generic billing error warning.

Fix

Add a shouldRewriteBillingText() guard function (matching the existing shouldRewriteContextOverflowText() pattern) that distinguishes real billing errors from assistant prose:

Precise billing patterns (402, insufficient credits, credit balance, payment required, plans & billing) are rewritten unconditionally — these are unambiguous error strings.
Broad heuristic matches (billing + payment/upgrade/credits/plan) are only rewritten when the text looks like a raw error message (API payload, HTTP error, error prefix, or single-sentence without markdown/paragraphs).

Reproduction & Verification

Unit-level (direct function call):

Before fix (main branch) — Bug reproduced:

--- Assistant content (should NOT be rewritten) ---
  "**Billing:** Processed through ABC Financial Services..."  ❌ FALSE POSITIVE
  "The gym membership billing cycle runs monthly..."           ❌ FALSE POSITIVE
  "Here is a summary of the billing and payment options..."    ❌ FALSE POSITIVE

After fix — All verified:

--- Assistant content (should NOT be rewritten) ---
  ✅ PASS (all assistant content samples preserved)

--- Real billing errors (SHOULD be rewritten) ---
  ✅ PASS: "insufficient credits"
  ✅ PASS: "billing: please upgrade your plan"
  ✅ PASS: "Your credit balance is too low"

Integration-level (real gateway reply pipeline):

Added normalizeReplyPayload integration tests in src/auto-reply/reply/normalize-reply.test.ts that exercise the full reply normalization pipeline (normalizeReplyPayload → sanitizeUserFacingText):

Before fix (main branch) — Bug reproduced through real pipeline:

normalizeReplyPayload({ text: "**Billing:** ... payments ..." })
  → text: "⚠️ API provider returned a billing error..."  ❌ FALSE POSITIVE

After fix — Pipeline preserves assistant content:

normalizeReplyPayload({ text: "**Billing:** ... payments ..." })
  → text: "**Billing:** Processed through ABC Financial Services..."  ✅ PRESERVED

normalizeReplyPayload({ text: "insufficient credits" })
  → text: "⚠️ API provider returned a billing error..."  ✅ REWRITTEN

Effect on User Experience

Before fix:
Sub-agent researches gym membership details → output contains "Billing: ... payments" → parent receives "⚠️ API provider returned a billing error" instead of actual findings.

After fix:
Assistant content discussing billing/payment topics is delivered as-is. Real billing errors (402, insufficient credits, etc.) are still correctly caught and rewritten.

Testing

✅ 14 unit tests pass (12 existing + 2 new regression tests in sanitizeuserfacingtext.test.ts)
✅ 2 new integration tests pass (normalizeReplyPayload pipeline in normalize-reply.test.ts)
✅ isBillingErrorMessage() unchanged — error classification for failover/logging still works

greptile-apps

_{1 file reviewed, 2 comments}

_{Edit Code Review Agent Settings | Greptile}

greptile-apps · 2026-02-10T15:21:21Z

src/agents/pi-embedded-helpers/errors.ts

+  const hasMultipleSentences = /[.!?]\s+[A-Z]/.test(raw);
+  const hasMarkdown = /[*_#[\]|]/.test(raw);
+  const hasParagraphs = raw.includes("\n\n");
+  return !hasMultipleSentences && !hasMarkdown && !hasParagraphs;


Lowercase sentence false positive
hasMultipleSentences uses /[.!?]\s+[A-Z]/ (errors.ts:169), so multi-sentence prose where the next sentence starts lowercase (e.g., "... . payment is ...") is treated as single-sentence and will still be rewritten if it matches the broad billing heuristic. This undermines the goal of not rewriting assistant prose; consider using a sentence boundary check that doesn’t rely on capitalization (or a different prose-vs-error heuristic).

Prompt To Fix With AI

This is a comment left during a code review. Path: src/agents/pi-embedded-helpers/errors.ts Line: 169:172 Comment: **Lowercase sentence false positive** `hasMultipleSentences` uses `/[.!?]\s+[A-Z]/` (errors.ts:169), so multi-sentence prose where the next sentence starts lowercase (e.g., "... . payment is ...") is treated as single-sentence and will still be rewritten if it matches the broad billing heuristic. This undermines the goal of not rewriting assistant prose; consider using a sentence boundary check that doesn’t rely on capitalization (or a different prose-vs-error heuristic). How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.

greptile-apps · 2026-02-10T15:21:22Z

src/agents/pi-embedded-helpers/errors.ts

+  // Single-sentence short texts without markdown are likely error messages.
+  const hasMultipleSentences = /[.!?]\s+[A-Z]/.test(raw);
+  const hasMarkdown = /[*_#[\]|]/.test(raw);
+  const hasParagraphs = raw.includes("\n\n");
+  return !hasMultipleSentences && !hasMarkdown && !hasParagraphs;


One-sentence prose still rewritten
The fallback return !hasMultipleSentences && !hasMarkdown && !hasParagraphs; (errors.ts:168-172) will rewrite any single-sentence assistant content that happens to contain billing plus payment/upgrade/credits/plan (the broad heuristic). If the intent is to only rewrite raw error strings on the broad path, this condition is too permissive; a one-sentence paragraph of prose will be replaced by BILLING_ERROR_USER_MESSAGE.

Prompt To Fix With AI

This is a comment left during a code review. Path: src/agents/pi-embedded-helpers/errors.ts Line: 168:172 Comment: **One-sentence prose still rewritten** The fallback `return !hasMultipleSentences && !hasMarkdown && !hasParagraphs;` (errors.ts:168-172) will rewrite any single-sentence assistant content that happens to contain `billing` plus `payment/upgrade/credits/plan` (the broad heuristic). If the intent is to only rewrite raw error strings on the broad path, this condition is too permissive; a one-sentence paragraph of prose will be replaced by `BILLING_ERROR_USER_MESSAGE`. How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.

…openclaw#13434)

…false positive (openclaw#13434)

…xt per Greptile feedback (openclaw#13434)

openclaw-barnacle · 2026-02-21T04:13:54Z

This pull request has been automatically marked as stale due to inactivity.
Please add updates or it will be closed.

steipete · 2026-02-24T06:10:13Z

Closing as AI-assisted stale-fix triage.

Linked issue #13434 ("False positive: Sub-agent output about billing/payments incorrectly flagged as API error") is currently closed and was closed on 2026-02-10T15:05:22Z with state reason completed.
Given that issue is closed, this fix PR is no longer needed in the active queue and is being closed as stale.

If this specific implementation is still needed on current main, please reopen #13467 (or open a new focused fix PR) and reference #13434 for fast re-triage.

openclaw-barnacle bot added the agents Agent runtime and tooling label Feb 10, 2026

greptile-apps bot reviewed Feb 10, 2026

View reviewed changes

damaozi added 3 commits February 13, 2026 12:25

fix(errors): prevent billing false positive in sanitizeUserFacingText (…

ce9335b

…openclaw#13434)

test(errors): add normalizeReplyPayload integration test for billing …

db71164

…false positive (openclaw#13434)

fix(errors): remove broad prose heuristic from shouldRewriteBillingTe…

9e04f79

…xt per Greptile feedback (openclaw#13434)

openclaw-barnacle bot added size: S trusted-contributor labels Feb 13, 2026

dominicnunez mentioned this pull request Feb 14, 2026

Refactor: thread structured error classification through sanitizer pipeline #16521

Open

thewilloftheshadow force-pushed the main branch from bfc1ccb to f92900f Compare February 15, 2026 18:46

openclaw-barnacle bot added stale Marked as stale due to inactivity and removed stale Marked as stale due to inactivity labels Feb 21, 2026

steipete closed this Feb 24, 2026

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fix(errors): prevent billing false positive in sanitizeUserFacingText#13467

fix(errors): prevent billing false positive in sanitizeUserFacingText#13467
lailoo wants to merge 3 commits intoopenclaw:mainfrom
lailoo:fix/billing-false-positive-13434

lailoo commented Feb 10, 2026 •

edited

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lailoo commented Feb 10, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Summary

Problem

Fix

Reproduction & Verification

Unit-level (direct function call):

Integration-level (real gateway reply pipeline):

Effect on User Experience

Testing

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openclaw-barnacle bot commented Feb 21, 2026

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lailoo commented Feb 10, 2026 •

edited

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